OB FLASHES

Locals Set Out Surfing Rules for Sunset Cliffs

A few days ago, a sign appeared at Ladera Street at the end of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, just before the stairs. It was a privately-made sign, nailed to a post and stuck in the ground.

Yet it boldly set up surfing rules for Sunset Cliffs, and emphasized that “Locals” have priority on the waves. It also cautioned inexperienced people not to surf at the famous Cliffs, known for their beauty and their dangers. (Just last week, a young surfer got caught in the high tide and had to be rescued.)

Vote for the OB Rag for Blogger Choice Awards

Vote for the OB Rag at the blogger choice awards, PLEASE. it would be so cool if our community blog got recognized here! http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/82899

Just a reminder that Hodad’s, located at 5010 Newport Avenue, is having a benefit for OB Elementary School on Thursday, October 22nd. It’s in honor of the school’s centennial, and will run from 11 am to 9 pm. Hodad’s will donate 25% of its sales to the school. Customers and other members of the community ares asked to drop off items that can be donated to the school. Items such as gift certificates, retail items, dinners, free or discounted treatments and tickets can be dropped off at Hodad’s.

Kick Gas events from Ocean Beach – Sat. Oct 24th

This Saturday the city of San Diego will be home to the West Coast’s largest Eco-party. The Kick Gas Chef Competition will be held at the OB Farmers Market Zone. Award winning Celeb Chef Brian Malarkey of Oceanaire Seafood Room is scheduled to appear at the cook off.

The Ocean Beach Surf and Skate Interactive Zone will don skate ramps and a street course as well as wakeboarding, hang gliding, and other displays of extreme sports. For more information, visit .

OB’s anti-graffiti activism displayed

Ed Baier and Lou Matt are some of OB’s most active anti-graffiti activists. They reported that they did a mass clean up and painting of what Ed calls “the brown wall,” along Sunset Cliffs near the edge of the ocean. They trimmed the ice plant, swept, and painted the walls from the tide pool gate to the apt bldg south of the pier. They will be continuing south to Del Monte in the next week or so. If you can help, contact Ed at edbaier@hotmail.com .

Volunteers being organized to aid elderly OBcean

Local electrician Jim Dent has an elderly OBcean as a customer. The man, who shall remain nameless for the moment, is a renowned author and former research scientist who is falling victim to his sunset years. He is in his 80’s and has no one to call family to assist him. Except Ocean Beach people. He has had a stroke and can barely talk, barely walk. His house has problems. It has no hot water and very little electricity. It also has holes in the walls so wild animals come and go as they please, you know, possums, skunks, stray cats.

Jim Dent has an idea. To organize a bunch of volunteers and clean up the place as best as possible, haul junk away, redo the electricity, plumbing, etc. Jim has some money and an account at Dixieland. Jim told us “OB is known for coming to the aid of it’s more well known citizens, but nobody knows this man.” OB came together to help Willie’s Shoe Shine Stand, Dago Choppers, to name a few. Jim said:

This man sleeps on a mattress with rat holes chewed through to the springs. The carpet is rotted away to bare cement. The man is in his final years. I’m going to redo his entire electrical system at no charge, but only if I get some volunteers, donations, whatever it takes to get people in there to remove the unusable furniture and garbage. Not much garbage, just decayed personal belongings. Gary from Pt. Loma Fix-IT is meeting me there to see what he can do to help me.

I’m moving forward if I have to go it alone. Gary is going to help, but he’s strapped for cash for lack of work and I’m not far behind. No good deed goes unrewarded. I’m going to put about $500 into electrical parts and install a new meter box and breakers before this place burns down. The all the wiring inside has to be gutted and replaced. It was never done right to begin with. The wires are all chewed through. It’s a time bomb and if anything were to happen I’d have to live with it.

If you can help contact Jim at 224-0672 or his email yrman2@gmail.com .

Central Library Vote by City Council on Oct. 27th

The San Diego City Council will vote Tuesday, October 27 to move the new Central Library project forward by putting it out for construction bid. This is an extremely key vote for this long overdue project.

Please mark your calendars and plan to attend this key meeting! Tuesday, October 27, 2 p.m. at 202 C Street, in downtown San Diego – City Council Rules chambers. If you are able to attend, please contact Charlie Goldberg of the Library Foundation by EMAIL or 619-238-6620.

The Central Library is the heart of the Library system with each branch relying daily on the collections, expertise and reference support of the Central Library. An investment in the new Central Library is an investment in the health of the entire system. As a recent San Diego Union-Tribune editorial pointed out, the new Central’s funding comes from money designated to build this project–funds which cannot be used for other libraries or purposes. Visit the Library Foundation website for updated info on the project. (VISIT HERE)

OB Christmas Tree Festival Food & Toy Drive

Beginning November 1st, donation cans will be out in the community, all donations go to Food & Toy Drive….

Nov. 10th OB Restaurant Walk Will Sell Out

The famous Ocean Beach Restaurant Walk – scheduled for Tuesday, November 10th – is a popular event and usually sells out. The $15 tickets for the event will go on sale November 2nd, as the Walk will encompass about 32 places to stop, running from 5 to 9pm.

There will be two Old Town Trolleys from from north OB to Newport Avenue, with the check-in places at Lucy’s on Voltaire & Sunshine Co. on Newport Avenue. This event is hosted by OBMA. The OB Rag plans to publish a more indepth look at the Restaurant Walk over the upcoming week.

Rally and March Against Education Cuts – Oct. 29th

On Thursday October 29th there will be a rally and march. Join us at the 3:00 PM Rally at Balboa Park: Corner President’s Way and Park Blvd. We will then march to the Governor’s Office at 1350 Front St. (arrive at roughly 4:15 PM). This is sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, Local1931, and other labor, academic, and student organizations.

OB Peoples Food to hold “Healthy Halloween for The Children”

On Halloween, Peoples will have a great event for kids at the store. The “Healthy Halloween” will be from 3 to 5:30 pm. For more info, call 619-224-1387.

Halloween clean-up by OB Town Council and Dog Wash all set

On October 31st, the OBTC, Dog Beach Dog Wash, and the City’s Environmental Services are sponsoring a community clean-up and recycling day. Get rid of those old appliances, old electronics and that other junk that you’ve been storing in the garage or back yard. Check out this pdf document to what’s recyclable and what’s not, plus other details, like where to take your junk.

while i “get it” that surfing the cliffs is not for amateurs, the pompous, fascist attitude revealed on that sign speaks volumes about what jerks hang out there. i say we just have the gov’t ban surfing off sunset cliffs. then these locals will have to drive elsewhere to fight with the “locals” there.

The irony of that sign is that it’s the author who is “whining like a little bitch.” He or she probably got their panties all in a bunch because they were cut off on a wave by some non-local. Then they ran home sobbing and wrote up this little fascist rule book. Way to make OB look like a bunch of assholes.

What constitutes a local or “loc” as I have heard it called. Maybe only Native Americans should be allowed to surf there. I find it hard to believe someone actually put a sign up what an A-hole. It makes want to take a boogie board out and cut him off.

great idea, get the GOVT involved. make more LAWS. bureaucracy obviously solves everything. if novices want to surf and want to surf at the cliffs, knowing how to surf is an understood prerequisite and they ought to have the balls to stick up for themselves if they’re out there. everybody knows about “local” surf rules and unless they’re retarded, respects them. if they don’t, they deserve an ass kicking. didn’t EVERYONE watch point break?

I just can’t get behind this central library project and I love a good library as much as anyone. I don’t like the deceptive practices that library boosters have used to force this project down our throats no matter how unrealistic it’s become. Is no one bothered by the school district shelling out millions of dollars to invest in a charter high school downtown that it doesn’t need? That’s just one of many red flags.

And it is simply not accurate to say the money designated for the library can’t be spent on anything else. It can’t be spent on other libraries or operations, sure, but it can be spent on other projects downtown. Like sewers, sidewalks and so on.

As for the new “surf rules” — this kind of attitude is only going to lead to trouble. The community should discourage it and quickly.

Hope no one minds me posting this here, I’m having a house party on Friday (10/23/09).

There will be a keg of decent beer, open bar and food. Feel free to bring stuff to share.

We have a a home arcade on free play, The Current (working) line up is Family Guy, Scared Stiff, Cirquis Voltaire, Fathom and Revenge From Mars. Vids include Asteroids Deluxe, Centipede, And a 1000+ game Multicade. We may have Pac Man/Ms Pac/Galaga working as well.

Vjs will be playing cool music and visuals all night. And there will be a fire on the roof deck.

Pat, I have a letter from this old man that I want to post on this site, but I don’t know how. I tried to copy and paste it, but it was saved as a scan tomy desk top and I can not drag my mouse over to copy. How do I upload this letter to this site? I thought I could change it to a word document, then copy and paste, but no dice. I’ll keep trying.

Pat, you’d do the same. How long have we known each other? I’m not sure if this elderly gentleman has had a stroke, but it looks like it. He’s bent over, can barely get out of his chair, and has a terrible speech problem. He told me that he can not smell the stench in his house. I told him that it is so bad that we almost declined to come inside. He then told me that most other service people did decline the work because of the smell. He’s no dummy. He’s maybe lost some form of reality, but he’s smart. I don’t understand though, why he does not use a trash can inside the house. I did find one room with hot water yesterday. There were 2 water heaters, one I didn’t know about. It looks like the house was once 2 apartments back to back. He looked at me with disbelief when I told him about the God awful smell. I guess he doesn’t smell good. 8-). I intend to fix that problem before I begin any electrical work and before Gary (Pt. Loma Fix It) starts any framing around the windows that are falling out. I’m talking BIG solid glass windows. It’s a “Move that bus” situation, except we don’t have the resources. Nobody has any money. I have some, and my bills are paid for this month, sooooo….Like the old saying goes, “I spent most of my money on booze, drugs and women, and the rest I just wasted”. This’ll be the wasted money! Except I don’t drink, drug, and I just got divorced.

Nobel cause, we all could be there one day. I have a lousy 100 bucks waiting for a place to send it. And please keep info posted on day and time of clean up.
Please post a location to send funds when you can.
Pay it forward.

Hi Jim- I just wanted to let you know if you didn’t already that craigslist FREE section gets some pretty good stuff sometimes….. as well as freecycle.org. Lots of used mattrasses and I saw a really nice lazy-boy on there yesterday.

Mari, that’s a great idea. Craig’s does have a lot of free stuff . But first things first. I want to rewire with the place while empty as possible. We may have to schedule a second day to do furniture. Obviously, he will not allow his bed to be removed, unless maybe he see’s a new one sitting in the living room. Thanks for the idea. So many people care about this. I’m impressed, but not surprised. This is OB and former OBceans are jumping on board. I hope my employee is willing to help me, but if he isn’t available, I could use an experienced electrician who doesn’t mind working for a sandwhich!

I’ve got a line on a nice rocking chair and matching ottoman if it helps – only thing is I’d have to get it sometime next week and would need somewhere to put it if the house isn’t going to be ready for any new additions for a while…

Thanks! I have a huge garage, so anything that needs to be stored until the house is made habitable again can be stored in my garage. My phone is 224-0672.I live right at 805 and Murray Ridge Rd. I can pick up whatever is being donated. But all I have is a Toyota pre runner pick up.

Dave, thanks for delivering the very nice chair, ottoman and trailer to my house on Friday. I just might have to keep that chair myself! You mentioned in an email that you wish to donate more money. Don’t do that! You’ve done enough already. Thanks very much.

Hopefully, we will assault this project on Saturday the 31st, but we may loose the work force to halloween parties. I am opening a Wells Fargo trust account tomorrow, Friday the 23rd. Donations can be sent to: 1350 Fashion Valley Rd. 1st Floor. San Diego, CA 92108-1103. I will decide on the name of the account before the 31st. Probably on Friday the 23rd. It will most likely be in the name of the Robert Ehmann Trust, but I have to talk to the bank to see how they do this. No way will I accept donations to myself. This has to have some legal guardian and a bank is the only answer. I need donations ASAP, and physical labor / help to clean the place out. Anyone with a large bed truck to haul 2 refrigerators and a furnace.

It’s almost 4:20 on Thursday 10/22 and I just got off the phone with Cow’s owner, Greg. He says he does not want to leave OB. And in fact, if he does have to go elsewhere to buy a building, he will keep a boutique Cow here in one of the minor malls, at least. He appreciates everyone’s concerns.

WTF is going on with the vacant spot that used to be the bookstore by Bernies? Why has that been allowed to be vacant? Why cant he move in there? I really think that landlords should pay a vacancy tax on their commercial property.

A PRICE IN BLOOD! That’s what the propertied class should pay for what they’ve done to our community…and not just to the small businesses. Am I the only one or is O.B. becoming overpopulated by the Mercedes, BMW and Land Rover mob? For the interim a vacancy tax would be just “capital” but until it’s “Eat the Rich” time, I remain-Die Yuppiescum

It looks like Swoozys is going to be another vacant spot..
Sheriff has a note on the door, and 90% of their goods are gone….

I almost want to insert a “How about another pizza/beer joint” joke here, but
its not a joking matter… I am bummed that Swoozys is out,
I bought my wedding dress there for 20$ 10 years ago.. kinda sentimental….

I just saw that today Amber. I’m totally bummed. They had some really stylin shirts and stuff for guys in there too. And my fiance liked to shop there alot. Although they seemed like they didn’t have quite enough product to fill that large space, and were at times, over-priced (recently). It’s just sad that another cool/local business is no longer.

i have surfed the cliffs since i was a teen. this placard is BS! Yes, there needs to be respect in the waves, especially at the ‘better spot’ waves, however a note like this only hardens the animosity… not a cool vibe.

Jim – please shoot an e-mail to pimpshackdave at gmail or post up here with deposit info once you get the Wells account up and running. It’s iffy on whether or not my girl is with her grandparents for a few hours midday on Halloween, if so then I’m sorry I just sold my truck to get repair money for our family car but I’ve still got access to a 5×8 flatbed trailer and a vehicle to yank it with – if someone helps me load it up I’ll haul it off to the dump (bonus if someone can find somewhere I can pick up a free bed off craigslist on the way back to town).

I’d always heard local surfers were complete douchewads, but this is the first time I’ve heard of them bragging to the world that they prefer to portray themselves as steaming piles of rhino excrement. Sucks.

Cool to hear your Cow update, Frank. Lots of empty storefronts, no one wants to lease one out? The commercial real estate crash is just getting started and it’s going to rival the residential crash in magnitude before all’s said and done, so I wouldn’t be too anxious to make a purchase in that sector at the moment anyhow…an open-ended one or two year lease could be just what the doctor ordered.

I narrowly avoided cardiac arrest from the Hodad’s bacon cheeseburger I powered down a while back…I forgot how hearty and delicious the mammoth hunks of dead pig they call bacon is there. And I’m staring at a bag containing the mountain of fries and onion rings that came home after Kenz, Mom and I all had our fill. My daughter and her classmates thank all of you experiencing the same rotgut I’ve got about now!

i, too, went for the bacon cheeseburger at hodad’s today. they must have missed my request on their facebook page for a better vintage of diet coke (they serve pepsi) and my ‘the usual table’. still, it was yum-a-licious.

Ditto on the Diet Pepsi whackness, Diet Coke is the only way to go and only because no one has Diet Dr. Pepper or Cherry Coke on the fountain…but they offer Fat Tire and Sierra Nevada, some of the best of the generically available ‘domestic’ domestic alternatives.

Thanks Doug for going out and thanks Hodad’s for giving the school 1/4 of Doug’s money!

Hey PSD, almost missed this post. The trailer would be great. I have a tow hitch on my truck too. I’ll send an email to the address you mentioned, unless I already did. It’s getting hard to remember everything and work 7 days a week!

Pimp Shack Dave, when can I pick up the trailer? I have a place to store it in my yard. I’ll haul it to the Orchard Street on Saturday, load it with the large appliances, take them to Rob Field for the free recycle drop-off, bring it back for the volunteers to fill with trash, and then go back and get my work van. You can call me at 224-0672. Thanks. That trailer is going to be a HUGE help! I used to have a 1999 Ford F550 with a 14′ dump bed, but had to sell it to pay for yellow page ads!

Jim, Great thing you are doing. Please keep us updated on the deposit info and other volunteer activities. Not sure I can actually do anything on the 31st, but if you are doing anything else down there at any time that may be within my realm of capabilities, I would be more than happy to show up and give you a hand.

Jim
I’m not surprised either,when people are in need in our community OB folks will step up to help.
A couple thoughts.
Yesterday when I was talking to the painting contractor, he mentioned another gentleman who was in a similar situation.
Although it didn’t seem quite as dire.
He too could use some assistance improving his living conditions.
Maybe a more general bank account for assistance to needy folks. Then if there is funds left over they could be used for other projects.
Also I think you should be reimbursed some if not all of your out of pocket expenses.
I know times are tough for small business folks these days.
Also I think Set free ministries might be able to haul off some of the recyclable items at know charge. Let me know I have a phone# I’ll give a call.
Again thanks a lot for what your doing.
Pat

That would be good. There are 2 refrigerators, one furnace, an oven, and a water heater. Any funds left over could be used for other people in need. However, I have already established an account at Wells Fargo in the name of Robert Ehmann Donations, acct# 7631090250. One of my Face Book customers has donated $250 and is asking for her employees to dig deep! I have asked all my Bookface friends to send or deposit one dollar. If they each send me a buck, I could wind up living in Palm Beach. The electrical and carpentry work will cost about $800 in parts. The labor would normally cost 6 times that. Gary of Pt. Loma Fix-it is strapped for cash and hasn’t worked any good jobs in a while. He’s volunteering the carpentry, but I want to compensate him in some small way. I have enough money to get me through next month, as long as the work keeps coming. What would help a great deal is for someone to post this even on http://www.kudzu.com, search point loma electric, san diego and click “reviews”. I’m not looking for praise, I’m looking for donations from my customers who have posted nice reviews of my work. Thanks Pat. we have to keep this alive until next Saturday because after a week, people can loose interest, or just forget.

This is a letter sent to me by the old man that I want the volunteer help for. Nobody in 22 years has ever sent a letter like this to me for doing such a small job:

Well, I can’t figure out how to paste this letter onto this site. I’m going to post it to my Face Book page, but there are other news articles on the Rag and I just don’t know how to do it. On his letter, I right click “copy” but here there is no “paste” option. Dragging the mouse across the letter doesn’t work either. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Jim Dent

RE: Cliffs rules. Granted, it’s a pain in the ass when beginners screw up the flow in the lineup, especially on swell-tastic days. But really? Some douche has to post this? First, get a book on the mechanics of English and learn how to use a comma. Second, educate yourself about the true history of surfing. You’ll see how the legit “locals” abroad were screwed over by territorial assnuts like this. And, yes, I surf.

Thanks Woodie! We are getting more funds than I thought we would. If there is anything left over, it’ll help offset the cost of the electrical parts I need (about $1000). And if more donations come in, Pat James’ idea of putting them to use on another persons house in need will be done.

“Yesterday when I was talking to the painting contractor, he mentioned another gentleman who was in a similar situation.
Although it didn’t seem quite as dire.
He too could use some assistance improving his living conditions.
Maybe a more general bank account for assistance to needy folks. Then if there is funds left over they could be used for other projects.” Pat James.

Hey Jim – not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but the people at Wells today when I tried to make a deposit to the fund really kinda gave me a goofy look, tried to quiz me on who Robert Ehmann was and who you were and why I was donating – at the end of the ordeal they told me they suspected a scam and advised me against depositing. You might ask if anyone else has had a similar encounter…they even asked me as I left to please call them back if I do indeed find out the fund is bogus.

RE: Volunteers for elderly man in need. To those who have donated much needed cash, many thanks. However, during this past week I’d had approx. $800 pledged. Tomorrow is the big day. So far, I have only received $215. Most of the funds came from personal friends on Face Book. The local OB donations to date have come from: $25 from Jennifer Cook at Luminous Hair, and Woody Woodward of James Gang, $50. Maybe some are going to hand over some funds at the event tomorrow, but I’ve already spent close to $1000 on needed things like a dumpster, cleaning supplies, ect. in anticipitation of the donations. I plan to donate my own $800 for the electrical and building supplies when the place is cleaned out. Claudia Jack has got a Porta-Jon donated, thanks Claudia. I’m looking for the man who said he had carpet to donate. I’ve literally received so many emails (300), many from the same people 10 times over, that I can’t find him. We’ll need that carpet. I also need good used furniture, but there are web sites that have free stuff. But, if anyone has something nice they don’t need, please call me at 224-0672. Lets get those donations in the bank! Again, make checks payable to Robert Ehmanns Donation Fund, endorse the back with Deposit and # 7631090250. Thank you!

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